Starting Early: Returns on Kindergarten Attendance in Indonesia

This project is my Honors Thesis in Economics that I am completing with my advisor Ranjan Shrestha at William & Mary. I examine the effects of kindergarten on short-, medium-, and long-term effects. I employ three empirical strategies: OLS estimation, mother fixed-effects, and instrumental variable (IV) estimation. I find kindergarten has mixed effects; for OLS and IV estimation, kindergarten has strong positive effects on years of education completed, school completion, and cognitive test scores. However, using mother fixed-effects, there’s no statistically significant evidence of kindergarten’s effects. I also find mixed results regarding fadeout. I am interested in extending this project after graduation to examine heterogenous effects using Bayesian methods, kindergarten’s effects on labor market outcomes, and other health, social, and economic outcomes.

In the summer of 2023, I had the incredible opportunity to travel to Indonesia with my advisor Professor Ranjan Shrestha–there I worked with TNP2K and began my thesis, while exploring Indonesia. I was immensely honored to learn from economists working on the forefront of challenges in developmental and poverty policies in Indonesia, while grounding my research in a human and firsthand experience in Indonesia.

I’ve had the opportunity to present this ongoing project at various conferences. First, in January 2024, I presented my project at the 2024 National Collegiate Research Conference (NCRC), hosted by the Harvard Conference on Undergraduate Research (HCURA). The poster I presented there can be found here. An adaptation of my presentation at NCRC 2024 can be found here.

Second, in March 2024, I had the opportunity to present at William & Mary’s Spring 2024 Graduate and Honors Research Symposium. There I presented the slideshow that can be found here.

I am scheduled to defend my thesis in May 2024; upon the completion of my paper, I will upload my full paper, replication code, and data files.

I want to thank my Thesis Advisor, Professor Ranjan Shrestha, for his tremendous support and counsel throughout my project. I also want to thank the William & Mary Charles Center, Economics Department, and 1693 Scholarship for their support of my travels for this project.